by Do you want that burger medium rare, well-made or lab-grown?
Researchers in South Korea say they have developed a new way to make lab-grown meat taste like the real thing. It may look like a transparent disc, pink-colored bubble gum, but scientists hope that it could revolutionize meat on people’s plates.
Cultured meat – also known as cultured meat or cell-based meat – is emerging as an alternative to traditional meat, offering the same nutritional benefits and sensory experience without the carbon footprint.
It’s done by directly cultivating animal cells in a lab grown on 3D structures called “scaffolds,” which allow the cells to multiply, eliminating the need to raise farm animals.
Scientists have created everything from cultured meatballs to 3D printed steaks. While some previous iterations of cultured beef mimicked the look and feel of the real thing, according to a new study, they neglected a key element: flavor.
But in the study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers say they have cracked the code, developing cultured meat that generates “grilled beef flavors while cooking.”
“Taste is the key to accepting cultured meat as real meat,” Milae Lee, co-author of the paper and a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Seoul’s Yonsei University told CNN.
To mimic the taste of traditional meat, Lee and her colleagues recreated the flavors generated during the Maillard reaction – a chemical reaction that occurs between an amino acid and a reducing sugar when heat is added, resulting in a flavorful burger delicious, charred on it.
They do this by introducing a transferable flavor compound into a gelatin-based hydrogel, to form what is called a functional scaffold, which Lee described as “the basic composition of cultured meat”.
The flavor compound, which consists of a flavor group and two binding groups, remains in the scaffold until it is heated. It “switches on” when cooked for five minutes at a temperature of 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit), releasing meaty flavors that replicate the Maillard reaction, Lee said.
Because the cultured meat is not yet edible, the researchers used an electronic nose, which “mimics the human nasal system,” Lee said, to test the aromas of the cultured meat, and see how they compare to regular meat. .
For this study, the researchers focused on adding “meaty” and “sweet” flavors, Lee said, but the flavoring agent could also be adapted to incorporate other flavors — like the fattiness that comes from a juicy capillary eye. , for example .
The research focused on the science behind the taste of lab-grown meat, rather than the commercialization of the process, which is why the scientists used food-grade non-food substances. But they believe the strategy can be applied to traditional edibles, Lee said.
They also plan to reduce the animal products used in the process, including the gelatin-based hydrogel, to work towards lab-grown meat almost free of animal-derived substances.
Livestock farming is responsible for 6.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere each year, according to UN data. That’s about 12% of all human-caused emissions. Beef production is the most carbon intensive.
Farmed meat is positioned as a climate-friendly substitute for beef, although some studies say its potential impact on the environment may be overstated and it relies on less energy-intensive production methods to find.
“Laboratory-cultured meat has huge potential to contribute to sustainable diets but taste is probably only one small component of whether or not it will succeed,” said Jennifer Jacquet, professor of environmental science at the University of Miami, who was not involved in the research.
“Whether and how quickly lab-grown meat becomes acceptable or widespread depends a lot on the actions of powerful meat and dairy companies,” she told CNN.
There is already pushback in the US. In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned the sale of lab-grown meat in the state in what he said was an effort to protect farmers and ranchers.
“Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat flesh grown in a Petri dish or eat bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis said in a statement at the time.
But in other parts of the United States, you can find lab-grown chicken, although it’s still not beef.
In 2023, the US Department of Agriculture gave the green light to two companies – Good Meat and Upside Foods – to start selling their farmed chicken products, becoming the second jurisdiction after Singapore where consumers could buy it.
The companies debuted their chicken at high-end restaurants in the United States last year.
In May, Huber’s Butchery in Singapore became the first retail store to sell cultured meat, Feola Dea shredded chicken made with only 3% cultured meat. The rest are plant-based ingredients, according to the Good Meat website.
Now that the research team in South Korea has found a piece of the puzzle to improve the taste of lab-grown meat, the next challenge is to marry that taste with cultured meats that better mimic the look and texture the real thing – the pink. a gelatinous blob is unlikely to make the menu.
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